Books By Multiple Authors and Other Private Eye Team-Ups
- Double in Trouble (1959)Â |Â Buy this book |Â Kindle it!
By Richard S. Prather and Stephern Marlowe
Two of Fawcett Gold Medal’s best-selling eyes, Prather’s Shell Scott and Marlowe’s Chester Drum, team up to crack a case. - Stiff As a Broad (1971)Â |Â Buy this book
By G.G. Fickling
Fickling (actually the husband-wife writing team of Gloria and Forrester Fickling) paired up their two sex-crazed P.I.s, Erik March and Honey West, in this 1971 caper. - Twospot (1978) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
By Bill Pronzini and Collin Wilcox
Pronzini’s Nameless and San Francisco Police Department Lieutenant Frank Hastings work to solve a murder involving an old California winemaking family. - Double (1978) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
By Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller
Pronzini’s Nameless and Muller’s Sharon McCone — both based in San Francisco — team up to crack a case together after running into each other at a private eye convention in San Diego, McCone’s hometown. There are also walk-ons by Brock “The Rock” Callahan and Miles Jacoby. - The Cana Diversion (1982) | Buy this book
By William Campbell Gault
Ex-LA Rams guard turned South California private eye Brock Callahan tries to help out another Gault PI, the troubled Joe Puma, who had his own series back in the fifties and sixties. - Caribbean Blues (1988)Â |Â Buy this book
Edited by Mary Higgins Clark, with chapters by Mary Higgins Clark, Molly Cochran, Max Allan Collins, Gregory McDonald, Richard Meyers, Warren Murphy, and Robert J. Randisi
A group of P.I.s, including Collins’ Nate Heller and, anachronistically, Murphy’s Trace, solve a crime on the highseas during a Caribbean cruise, circa 1938. - The Black Moon (1989) |Â Buy this book
Edited by Robert J. Randisi and Ruth Ashby
By Loren D. Estleman, Ed Gorman, W.R. Philbrick, Robert J. Randisi and L.J. Washburn
Salvatore Carlucci (written by Robert J. Randisi), part-time peeper and owner of The Black Moon bar, enlists the aid of “America’s toughest detectives” to track down some paintings stolen forty years previously during WWII. Along for the ride are Ralph Parnell (written by Ed Gorman), Miami investigator Tony Mack (by W. R. Philbrick), Laura Bailey (by L. J. Washburn) and Iron Harbor, Michigan police chief and part-time private investigator Riley Cooper by Loren D. Estleman). - Border Snakes (1996)Â |Â Buy this book |Â Kindle it!
By James Crumley
Not really by multiple authors, although it does finally bring together Crumley’s two series eyes, Milo Milodragovitch and C.W. Sughrue. It’s about time those two crazy kids got together. - Naked Came the Manatee (1997) | Buy this book
By Carl Hiassen, Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry, Edna Buchanan, Les Standiford, Paul Levine, James W. Hall, Carolina Hospital, Evelyn Mayerson, Tananarive Due, Brian Antoni, Vicki Hendricks, John Dufresne
Thirteen Florida crime writers all have a whack at a crime novel that includes a a 102-year-old environmentalist, former President Jimmy Carter, cryogenically-preserved human heads and and a manatee named Booger. Featuring appearances by hard-boiled Miami reporter Britt Montero and lawyer Jake Lassiter. Originally a 13-week serial in the “Tropic” section of the Miami Herald, with all proceeds going to charity. - Melancholy Baby (2004) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
By Robert B. Parker
The Sunny Randall series has always been full of sly winks and nudge-nudges, as supporting characters from Parker’s other series regularly pop up, drop by or pass through, but this time out, the perpetually troubled Sunny, she of the screwy love life, goes off the deep end when she learns her ex is getting remarried and decides to seek out professional help from a Cambridge therapist. The shrink, of course, turns out to be Susan Silverman, main squeeze of you-know-who. - Blue Screen (2006) | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
By Robert B. Parker
Sunny Randall rides again. This time not only is Susan Silverman aboard, but also Jesse Stone, chief of police of Paradise, Massachusetts and Parker’s other non-Spenser series detective, who hooks up (in the Biblical sense of the phrase) with Sunny. - Inherit the Dead (2013) | Buy this book | Buy the audiobook | Kindle it!
Edited by Jonathan Santlofer
By Mary Higgins Clark, John Connolly, Charlaine Harris, CJ Box, Mark Billingham, Lawrence Block, Ken Bruen, Alafair Burke, Stephen L. Carter, Marcia Clark, Max Allan Collins, James Grady, Heather Graham, Bryan Gruley, Val McDermid, SJ Rozan, Dana Stabenow, Lisa Unger, Sarah Weinman and Lee Child
Yet another of those sprawling, episodic, collaborative mystery efforts perpetrated by a slew of suspects, this one actually is a private eye novel, which follows New York gumshoe Pericles “Perry” Christo on a wandering daughter job that takes him to the Hamptons in the dead of winter. Features an introduction by Lee Child. - FaceOff (2014) | Buy this book | Buy the audiobook | Kindle it!
Edited by David Baldacci,
This star-spangled collection, the first from the International Thriller Writers, might also be the first time anyone’s attempted rounding up a whole book of short stories pairing various popular series characters by various popular thriller writers. Among the stories P.I. fans should be investigating: Harry Bosch and Patrick Kenzie? Heather Graham’s Michael Quinn and Repairman Jack? Nick Heller and Jack Reacher? Sign me up… - Matchup (2017) | Buy this book | Buy the audiobook | Kindle it!
Edited by Lee Child
By
Much like FaceOff (above), the point of Matchup is to tagteam various popular series characters by various popular thriller writers. The hook here? They’re pairing off male and female writers. Highlights include  Karin Slaughter’s Jeffrey Tolliver joins Michael Koryta’s Joe Pritchard & Lincoln Perry to crack a case, and Kathy Reichs’ Temperance Brennan teams up with Child’s Jack Reacher.
STILL TO BE CONFIRMED
- Carter Brown supposedly allowed a crossover between police detective Al Wheeler and private eye Mavis Seidlitz, but I’m not sure which book.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Great Cameos
Hey! Isn’t that…?
List compiled by Kevin Burton Smith, with help from Jim Doherty.
